Nintendo secures RCM loader ban in the U.S.

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For anyone living in the United States, buying a RCM Loader just got much more difficult.

As you may have heard, Nintendo filed a lawsuit in November 2020 against Vietnamese resident Le Hoang Minh, who manufactured RCM Loaders and sold them on Amazon under the name "Winmart". This came after a DMCA takedown request from Nintendo, resulting in Amazon taking down his listings. Le disputed the request, allowing him to resume selling the devices. Nintendo called this an abuse of the DMCA's counternotification system, since Le lives in Vietnam, where any consequences for wrongly disputing DMCA takedowns are unenforceable. Due to this, Nintendo sought an injunction by a U.S. court. After the lawsuit was filed, Le did not respond to it, nor did Le enter discussions with Nintendo. This led Nintendo to seek a default judgment.

According to Nintendo, here is why the product is illegal:
Once this circumvention has occurred, the unauthorized CFW modifies the authorized Nintendo Switch operating system, thereby allowing users to obtain and play virtually any pirated game made for the Nintendo Switch. All of this happens without authorization or compensation to Nintendo or to any authorized game publishers
On April 15, 2021, the U.S. court to which Nintendo brought the case has ruled in favor of Nintendo's request for a default judgment. Any online store selling RCM Loaders is now prohibited from shipping them to the U.S.

Nintendo is seeking a total of $2,500 in damages (down from their original request for $2,500 per violation) in an effort to not drag the litigation out much longer:
This request for a $2,500 award is intended to be very conservative and does not reflect anything close to the full amount of damages Nintendo could reasonably seek from Defendant,” the company writes.

Nintendo could…credibly seek a separate award for every device Defendant sold — almost certainly many devices, given that Defendant’s RCM Loader device was available online for many months. However, rather than attempt to quantify Defendant’s total sales, Nintendo seeks to facilitate an efficient resolution of this case through entry of judgment awarding damages for a single § 1201 violation.
The injunction also applies to "any and all products, services, devices, components or parts thereof” that circumvent Nintendo's security measures. Does this mean that Le Hoang Minh (and anyone working with him) can't even sell paperclips?

:arrow: Source (courtesy of TorrentFreak)
 

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godreborn

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I just bought an rcm loader. I know nothing about the switch hacking scene, and I haven't hacked any of mine, but I figured better buy one before they're hard to find. I have one hackable system based on serial number that I got in 2018.
 

XDel

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So again, Epstein list... prolly will never come to light, and at best a few sacrificial lambs will be selected from among the elite, and those will be the only names we hear of and the only people who will serve time in prison.

This Le Hoang Minh fellow on the other hand... well now I know his name, and he's all the way over on the other side of the world, and to the best of my knowledge, never did a damn thing to hurt anyone including myself or my potential off spring. So what gives, why am I reading about this poor soul's plight, and why is it that Nintendo and others continue to present themselves as innocent victims time and time again.
 
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I don't know why anyone gets mad at Nintendo. There's no telling how much money they spend on stopping piracy and obviously what they're doing doesn't work they've never had a console or handheld not be hacked so they haven't stopped anything. I laugh at them.
 

Goku1992A

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I just use a cable and that Windows RCM program; works very reliably, and portability's not a factor for many reasons.

I used to use the computer too and also the phone but sometimes (for me) the RCM wasn't registering but I never had a problem with the box.

I don't know why anyone gets mad at Nintendo. There's no telling how much money they spend on stopping piracy and obviously what they're doing doesn't work they've never had a console or handheld not be hacked so they haven't stopped anything. I laugh at them.

I'm going to disagree with you here. Nintendo has been doing a GREAT JOB combatting piracy this generation, To date the V2 switches require a modchip and Nintendo already shut down SXOS and it is really hard to get a modchip nowadays nor find someone who is willing to risk it all to install them. We used to have a user here that used to install modchips however Nintendo hit him with a cease and desist.

I think that guy ran off with a few people switches and never returned them. So Nintendo has been working overtime on this but in this situation the RCM loader is only for V1 switches you don't need a RCM loader for modchips and you can toggle into RCM for free from the computer or an android phone. That's why idk why Nintendo is pursing this.

To even buy a RCM loader from aliexpress you need to wait 2 months to get one
 
Last edited by Goku1992A,
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To be fair, if I were part of Nintendo's Management I also would recognise the breadth of the Corporation I'm working for. Even the smallest efforts to continually protect the company's IPs would also be on my agenda, despite it being repetitive.

Besides, the United States legal system has always been good to Nintendo, hence the immortalised Kirby of gratitude.

They didn't pursue this in the Vietnamese courts so, if anything, complaints should be directed appropriately, to the corresponding judicial system ...
 

Steel-Winged_Pegasus

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This only reminds me of that time I was window shopping on Amazon for stuff, and I saw an RCM loader that advertised itself as a "Bluetooth audio receiver" for the Switch. :rofl: I get why the seller would do that, but... still, it gave me a good chuckle.

But meh, people have other ways of getting into RCM, anyways. First time I did, I used some tinfoil on a JoyCon rail. Decided to get an RCM loader eventually, though.
 

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